Most of us were asleep when it happened, so only one of the survivors -- Greta -- really saw what happened. According to her, somebody in a big, blue, American sedan cut us off, and when John swerved to avoid hitting them, he swung so hard that he hit his head on the window and knocked himself out. But by the time anyone official spoke with Greta, it was several hours later and that car had long since disappeared into morning rush hour.

There were other people who stopped when it happened; I never knew any of their names or what they saw. Maybe they remembered it differently -- I don't know. The cops told us that they thought John fell asleep, but that didn't make any sense -- he'd taken the first shift, then slept through the night, and had only been awake and driving for an hour or so. Out of everyone in the van, he was one of the *most* rested.

The first year Max and I were married, someone cut him off on Baum and when he swerved a person driving really fast through one of the side streets (near the Pizza hut) hit him. He hit the windshield and the air bag burned him. He was so disoriented, of course, that the police said he must have fallen asleep at the wheel. It never made any sense to me. The people who caused the accident were long gone. I wasn't there. I was at work.

I'm very afraid of car accidents, so I'm never able to fall asleep when I'm a passenger in a vehicle. Even on a bus.